Mission Faithwalk

                 Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.” (Exodus 15:20-21) Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it. (I Chronicles 15:22) “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. (Joel 2:28) There are references to singing in Genesis but not attributed to any specific person. Laban’s rebuke of Jacob for absconding with his family included that Laban didn’t even have the chance to play the timbrel or sing and dance them off. In Exodus, Miriam was called a prophet, not a singer. She led the worship team...

              Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.    To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech. Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes. Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah . (Genesis 4:19-22)           Continuing with the theme of creativity, the passage above is the first time several things are mentioned: a city, tents, stringed instrument...

  Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze,    to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. (Exodus 35:30-34) Bezalel- in the shadow(protection) of God Uri -my light/flame Oholiab – Father’s Tent Ahisamak – Brother of Support           Bezalel recently came to mind. Of course he didn’t come to mind as “Bezalel.” He came to mind as “that guy to whom God assigned the crafting of the tabernacle. I knew he had a partner, too, but had to do some searching to find the passage above. I d...

                 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, (Hebrews 12:28)   When the Israelites left Egypt, they thought they were going to have an easy time of it, and discovered they were wrong. When they crossed the Jordan to take the Promised Land, they thought they were going to have an easy time-  especially after Jericho. They found out they were wrong. When they thought they could worship the gods of the land and God, they thought they’d have an easy time of it. They were wrong and ended up in exile. When the Romans invaded England, they thought they’d have an easy time of it. They found out they were mistaken. When the settlers and later the Puritans came to the New World, well, you can already see where this is going. The reason we have Thanksgiving is in memory of the survival of a group of people who had been w...

                      And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)     You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?   As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. (Romans 2:23-24)           “I claim this land in the name of…”           Another way of saying the same thing? Put up a flagpole. The moon belongs to the United States. Of course, we’ve been gone so long, and a territorial dispute on the moon would be horrifically expensive – not worth it. But you get the point. When we do something “in the name of,” we are acting as their representative. We are doing or saying something on his/her behalf,  based on his/her supposed authority.  ...

  When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. (Matthew 2:16)   Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”   Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ (Matthew 4:8-10)   Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (Mathew 16:23)   Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you w...

                 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations . (Psalm 100:4-5)   One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” (Job 1:6-7)   The first passage above was BibleGateway.com’s verse of the day, and it makes me smile. They meant it as a Thanksgiving Day preparation. But let’s do a little mental exercise. Suppose that you walked through the gates, and the courts beyond were rusted metal and mildew, with water dripping here and there and broken benches. Suppose the place you entered was, in fact, the most dismal and depressing place you can imagine, and you are herded in with twice as many people as can fit in the space...

                 Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach , (I Timothy 3:2) and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds. (I Timothy 5:10) Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. (Titus 1:8) OK, this is scary. The first and third verse above deal with overseers. The middle one is about widows who are supported by the church. All three verses include some form of the word hospitality . What Paul seems to be saying in each of these passages is that if you want to lead, or if you want to be put on the church payroll, you need to show hospitality. Two of the verses also use the word self-controlled. I suspect...

                 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling . (I Peter 4:9) Years ago, I told my father that if he came home without giving me three days notice, he would come home to a mess. Now, exactly what I meant – or what he understood – by mess may not be what you understand it to mean. I both was and was not lying because it was the only way I could think of to get him to warn me before he came home. I don’t like surprises - particularly surprises that involve people who then make demands (just by their presence) on my time and resources. However, one of the ideas that has been a sort of ghost (coming back to haunt me) over the past decade is community. One of the things I’ve learned about community is that it is aided by a location. Community could develop at the trailer park/campground where I spent my winters because they had two clubhouses at which residents could get together, and they had stuff to do ...

            if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (II Chronicles 7:14) Yes, I’ve discussed this verse before, but today it’s come back to mind, possibly with a slight variation that might be just what someone needs to hear.  First, the basics. If God’s people, who are called by God’s name… that’s us. Will humble themselves…that’s us. And pray…that’s us, And seek His face and turn from their wicked ways… that’s us. Then God will hear from heaven, and God will forgive our sins and heal our land. So, what’s your problem? What problems do you see? I don’t mean that in a negative way. What are the problems in your household, neighborhood, city, county, or nation. What are your sins? What are the sins in your home, neighborhood, city, county, nation. What w...

                 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2) It is reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king   and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: “There is a king in Judah!” Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us meet together… One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.”...

                 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her   to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—...

                 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,   because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”   Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”   “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the...

                 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law . (Psalm 119:18)           Recently, there has been pictures on Facebook that – if you squint, the picture changes from one thing to another. There are also posts in which someone shares with you something you might have missed in a book or movie. I have read books more than once, including the Bible, and gotten something out of them the second or third time. I know others who have as well.           So while we may hear (or even think) that reading the Law is a long list of boring “Thou shalt nots…” that take all the joy out of life. But this prayer is about finding life in the Law instead. It takes looking at things differently. Our eyes need to be opened. It is like what C. S. Lewis says about Christianity: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen:...

                                He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds .  (Psalm 147:3) Broken hearts can heal. I know that it’s unempathetic of me to even suggest that healing is possible, but according to Scripture, God heals the brokenhearted. Scripture does not tell us what method He’ll use or how long it will take. I suspect that we can not even remember the heartbreak while God is still working on it. Other times, we may be going about our day and suddenly realize that we’re not in pain anymore. We might even feel guilty for not being in pain. Speaking of guilt, I must mention that feeling guilty for not feeling heartbroken is no more noble than feeling the pain of heartbreak. Just as there isn’t nobility in feeling or not feeling the pain of a sprained ankle or a broken arm, there is no nobility in feeling heart pain. It does not prove your love for someone who is...

                 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit . (I Peter 3:18) Today’s verse is another of those “obvious” things for which we should be thankful. Veteran’s Day was this past Monday, and many of us thanked our veterans, who risked their lives in defense of the lives of another. We sometimes think to thank police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and doctors and scientists. We cheer as we watch videos in which people rescue animals, and say “Ahhh” when the animal appears to understand and show gratitude.  I have no doubt that our lives have been saved scores of times this year because other drivers have responded quickly even when we didn’t realize our lives were in danger. The difficulty is that it’s possible, and possibly likely, that while our lives have been saved at great cost to someone else’s, we aren...

                 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. (I Peter 2:15-16) The elections are over. Most (perhaps all) of the winners have been announced. Now, too many democrats will decide they have the spend the next four years being nasty and hateful, working harder than ever to shove their wishes down everyone’s throats. And too many republicans will decide either to sit back and let the government shove their wishes down everyone’s throat, or that they have the right to work harder than ever to shove their wishes down everyone’s throat. After all, “they” won. In so far as the democrat or the republican believes that God exists, they are likely to claim that God is on their side. But today’s Scripture says that God rejects that sort of thinking. It is God’s will that we – each – i...

                 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. (I John 2:15-16) I often tell people that the first task in any discussion is the definition of terms. I thought perhaps the Greek word translated love above was the term for platonic or erotic love, but it’s not. It’s what we call “agape love.” Most of the other words are clear – except the word for life. It doesn’t refer to biological life, but to a lifestyle. With those in mind, we are commanded not to love the world. In most of the religions of the time, the gods were nature gods. In one sense, those who worshipped said gods were closer to the land than they were to the gods, who tended to be their means to influence nature. Some were willing to sacrifice their c...

                 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.    I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. (Revelation3:7-8) At the end of September, just before leaving for Florida, I told some friends that there was at least one couple interested in buying my trailer, and that if it sold so that I could be home by the end of October, I would know that this was all God’s will and His doing. I drove away from the trailer on October 31 st . Now, if we’d been thinking and they’d given me cash instead of having to wait for the check to clear, I could have been out of there even earlier. The only reason I wasn’t home o...

                 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18) My initial reaction was “We’re back to Christian kindergarten? What am I supposed to write about this that will be of use to someone who has bene a Christian for any length of time?”  What, indeed? For one thing, we need to not forget it. Yes, God has brought this to pass. He’s not forgetting that He did it. We may not exactly forget it, but unless some song or something someone says brings it to mind, we may not actively think about it. I’m not saying this in order to shame or guilt anyone, but Thanksgiving is coming soon. As we contemplate what we should be thankful for (and there is so much), this should be right up there with “I’m thankful that God is God and I am not.” He has removed the stain of sin from our s...

                 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15) When I first saw this verse, my thought was “Again?” Biblegateway.com seems to be using verses that I have used comparatively recently. However, a few more minutes of thought brought me to the conclusion that it was the perfect verse for me for today. I got back home last night. I am in the process of emptying the truck and trying to get my home started in the direction of being a home. I almost feel as if I should be saying, “Hi, my name is Karen” because this marks a big change in my life. I know other folks who are heading to Florida to be snowbirds, and they’re facing a variation on the same idea. It’s a n...

                 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.  (I Timothy 2:1-2)       Yes, we are stuck on politics. But we’re also talking about employers, police officers, teachers, preachers, crossing guards, parents, babysitters, neighbors, and all people. And we’re to pray so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. Is your mind hitting the brakes? What would be required for you to live a peaceful and quiet life? One thing is for the leadership in your society to not oppress you. We need to pray for their salvation, sanctification, wisdom, health, etc. But let’s suppose that the leadership of your society doesn’t oppress you but does not do what your neighbor or you want it to. Your peace is not only conti...

                 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Ephesians 1:9-10) As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who [ i ]  have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) OK, this time I’m dealing with one part of this passage: “He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure.” Yes, ultimately this refers to Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. I agree. But the first point I want to make using this passage today is that God’s will is often mysterious to us. We don’t underst...

  Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever exalts himself shall be exalted. (Matthew 23:12) Today’s verse is thanks to C.E. White, who considers it today in The Mirror of the Word . It’s a new devotional and I don’t want to step on her toes, but since I can’t get to the internet at the moment to find something to write about, and this verse has sparked an idea or two, I’m absconding with it, starting with some of what Dallas Willard has taught. Professor Willard defines a kingdom as the range of one’s effective will. We pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, meaning that God’s kingdom includes both heaven and earth. By extension, that should mean all of us. The king of England, on the other hand, has a much smaller range. He can command only the British Empire and is legally limited about that command. The range of the effective will of the president of the United States was always supposed to be lower than a king’s, with the Constitution, the Leg...

                 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. (Romans 13:6) But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,   that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  (Matthew 5:44-45) Now I will give all your countries into the hands of my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; I will make even the wild animals subject to him. (Jeremiah 27:6) So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.  (Matthew 712) The election is all over but the shouting (and hopefully nothing more than shouting) and at some point in the next month or so, it will be confirmed who will be our next president. I’m sure you have a prefe...